This `Legend' Is No Classic

Upn's First Replacement Is Too Silly To Last

April 18, 1995|By TOM JICHA TV/Radio Writer

Legend makes history. What could be more appropriate?

The history this Legend makes is as the first replacement series in the brief history of the United Paramount Network. Not even O.J. footnotes Paula Barbieri and Kato Kaelin could save The Watcher from being the wannabe-network's first castoff (although it has not been officially canceled).

This replacement series is as proficient as replacement baseball players. Richard Dean Anderson clearly wants to be the new Maverick as he rebounds from his post-MacGyver hiatus with a tongue-in-cheek performance as a faux western hero. Anderson is likable enough, but he's as much like James Garner (or even Mel Gibson) as whoever played right field for the make-believe Marlins was like Gary Sheffield.

Anderson plays Ernest Pratt, a womanizing, boozing, San Francisco-based 19th century author of dime novels that recount stirring yarns of the Wild West. Pratt's hero is a fictional character named Nicodemus Legend, a hard-riding, straight-shooting, clean-living cowboy. Everything the cowardly Pratt is not.

Problem is, many of his fans can't separate fiction and reality, a dilemma exacerbated by two factors. Pratt uses his own image to represent his hero in the illustration of his books. Equally significant, there is a knockoff on the frontier performing stirring deeds in the name of Nicodemus Legend.

The ersatz Legend has performed a miraculous feat in Colorado, which aided poor settlers but caused a significant setback for a wealthy landowner with a corrupt sheriff in her pocket. Now there's a warrant out for Legend's arrest.

Pratt's specialty is western adventure, not mystery, so he can't figure out how he pulled off the seemingly impossible without setting foot in the state that is the setting for many of his tall tales. Inasmuch as book sales are in a slump and he is bereft of original ideas, he decides a trip to the frontier to investigate is needed.

His reluctance to assume the identity of the idol he has created evaporates as soon as he experiences the adulation of the townspeople. The fact that a reporter from a big paper back East wants to either further lionize or expose him is the clincher.

The downside is, he faces jail or assassination.

Meanwhile, Legend's imposter/ally is out there somewhere. He turns out to be an almost-mad scientist named Janos Bartok, who is on the cutting edge in fields such as electricity and physics. Because of his covert activities, Bartok (John de Lancie of Star Trek: The Next Generation) is publicity shy. This is why he has deflected credit for his good deeds to Legend.

"Your celebrity and my science can create the real Legend," he tells Pratt. In essence, Bartok turns Legend into a Wild West MacGyver.

The difference is, MacGyver managed to avoid slipping into silliness. Legend does not. Brisco County Jr. did the same act better on stronger stations for Fox last season and wound up canceled.

There is no reason to perceive or desire a better result for Legend. This is a replacement series destined to be quickly replaced.